Bribe Fight In Spotlight

By

Erica Orden

April 9, 2013 10:14 p.m. ET

Under pressure to address a new round of political corruption, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday proposed legislation making it easier to charge public officials with taking bribes and create new penalties for those convicted of defrauding the government.

The ideas were part of a package of anticorruption proposals that Mr. Cuomo, flanked by district attorneys, unveiled at a Manhattan news conference. The governor moved quickly to craft the legislation as an escalating series of scandals threatened to tarnish what he has hailed as one of his signature achievements: making the Capitol function smoothly again.

ENLARGE

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announcing the proposed changes in the law against bribery on Tuesday.
Andrew Hinderaker for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, pledged to push for legislative action in the next few months.

"We need progress, and we need progress now," Mr. Cuomo said. "That is not to say that we can legislate-away this problem. Power will corrupt. There will always be greed and arrogance. There will be criminality in every field, in every sector. But this is a journey; it is not a destination. And we must do better."

The governor's push came about a week after federal prosecutors in New York shook up the political world, charging Democratic State Sen. Malcolm Smith of Queens, Republican New York City Council Member Dan Halloran of Queens, Democratic Assemblyman Eric Stevenson of the Bronx, and several others in two alleged bribery and corruption plots. All the defendants have denied wrongdoing.

The centerpiece of Mr. Cuomo's proposal would change state law on bribery to mirror federal law, requiring that a prosecutor prove only that a person paying a bribe intended to influence a public official or that the official receiving it intended to be influenced—but not both.

The legislation would also create new penalties for anyone convicted of defrauding the government—whether or not they are a public official. Anyone convicted of such an action would be guilty of a crime ranging from a fourth-degree to a first-degree felony.

A third prong of the proposal would make it a misdemeanor for a public official or employee to fail to report bribery. Three other states—Alaska, Illinois and Connecticut—have passed laws to that effect.

In addition, the proposed legislation would create higher penalties for any kind of fraud, theft or money laundering if such conduct is committed against the government. And it would impose on those convicted of public-corruption felonies lifetime bans on elected or civil office, serving as a registered lobbyist or doing business with the state.

The legislation would also strip pensions from anyone convicted of public-corruption felonies, provided they joined the system after the 2011 enactment of the state pension-reform law, the governor's office said.

The package of bills will be one of the governor's key agenda items during the remainder of the legislative session, along with an overhaul of campaign-finance laws and an effort to codify state abortion laws to match federal standards. Legislative leaders said they would review the proposals.

The governor has a history of fighting public corruption while state attorney general from 2007 through 2010. Most notably, as the result of a lengthy investigation as attorney general, Mr. Cuomo prosecuted former New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who pleaded guilty to a felony corruption charge for his role in a pay-to-play pension scandal. Mr. Hevesi served 20 months in prison and was released in December.

Mr. Cuomo said he may look at additional enforcement responsibilities for the state attorney general. During his gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Cuomo proposed granting that office the jurisdiction to prosecute criminal and civil violations of campaign-finance laws.

"This is step one for us," Mr. Cuomo said. "We are going to be looking at other areas going forward," he said, naming campaign finance, term limits for legislators and full-time legislative employment among the options he might explore.

On Tuesday, he said he wanted "an overall reform package" targeting what he called "a bad combination of chemicals" in the state legislature.

"You have power, you have ambition, you have greed. You put all those chemicals in one test tube and you shake it up and bad things happen," he said.

Larry Norden, deputy director at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the governor's proposals would address some aspects of Albany's culture of corruption, but couldn't be considered a comprehensive cure.

"While it's absolutely critical to make it easier to prosecute wrong behavior when it happens and make punishments as firm as appropriate, we also need to come up with some solutions for fixing the systemic problems and restoring faith in the system," Mr. Norden said. "That's the second half that needs to be addressed in whatever comes out of Albany."

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